General BBC-related comment thread

! Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely!

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277 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread

  1. Martin says:

    Liquid Lunch:

    You asked for a list of leftie losers.

    Bob Gandalf
    Bozo fron U3
    Phoney Bliar
    Mugabe
    Gerry Adams
    George Galloway
    Ken Livingdead (no doubt to a big cheer as I assume the BBC will be picking the audience?)
    Lots of people wit hLiverpool accents
    Some bloke who keeps shouting about evil Thatcher
    Fat Elton
    Polly Toynbee
    That fat oeyed bloke with the deformed jaw that thinks he runs the Country
    Tony Benn (massive cheer for him as well)
    Yasmin Alabi Brown (she loves Africa so much she doesn’t want to go back to where she was born)
    Tariq Ali

    I’m sure there will be a few more losers

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  2. D Burbage says:

    It’s all too much > They now report the poll, but disgracefully don’t run it as a good news story for the Tories, but run is as “Voters are confused about what Labour stands for, says minister John Denham as a poll puts support on 23%”

    Nowhere does it say “Tory support at 49%” or “26% Tory lead in latest poll”.

    Anyone would think the BBC are a Labour-centric organsation !

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  3. George R says:

    The lead BBC web news article at ‘Scotland’ is a wonderful BBC propaganda piece by one Imtiaz Tyab, about the wonderful Scottish ‘Muslim Police Association’, and the horrible, non-Muslims’ ‘Islamophobia’.

    This BBC propaganda piece of special pleading for Muslims, financed again by BBC licence-payers, does not refer to the commonplace Islamist activity in the UK, no reference to 7/7, not to the Jihadist Glasgow airport ‘doctors’, it’s just propaganda, all the way through:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7391852.stm

    The BBC will NOT now present a critique of its mouthpiece for ‘Islamophobia’ with a critique like this:

    “Islamophobia?” (by Daniel Pipes_

    http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3075

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  4. Pot-Kettle-Black says:

    Lets all talk up the ITV shananigans, that way they might forget about all the BBC cons, no wait theres more…

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7392213.stm

    Still thats ok, its not so bad, after all the BBC only has the same standards as ITV, despite the public broadcaster getting over 3 billion pounds of taxpayers cash, well actually it doesn’t even reach the standards ITV are supposed to be at.

    Though at least I don’t pay for ITV, I can just choose not to watch, pity the same doesn’t hold for the BBC.

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  5. BaggieJonathan says:

    Martin,

    I object most strongly to that list on the grounds you omitted Clare Short.

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  6. BaggieJonathan says:

    Whose awfulness combined with being a loser of the first order must puther near the top of any list.

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  7. Martin says:

    BaggieJonathan: Yep I did forget her, but could you look at Polly Toynbee, Yasmin Alabi Brown AND Clare Short together?

    I’d be vomiting for a week

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  8. BaggieJonathan says:

    Only a week, you have a truly strong stomach…

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  9. Liquid Lunch says:

    keep that list coming – i’ll start working on the cathedral ceiling right away!

    And ‘islamophobia’ – ‘homophobia’ – I really do object to this Stalinist trend – i.e. – that if your opinion differs from the lefty norm – it must be a phobia – i.e – an illness – to be treated – whats next – state lobotomies in the nulabour gulag – mind you, i suppose schools already fulfil that function!

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  10. PacificRising says:

    Liquid Lunch / Martin

    You forgot:
    R. Williams (the Arch Bish.)
    D. Abbot
    The Lib Dem. Party

    Maybe Bobby Moogabee could handle crowd control, after all the Chinese have set a precedent with the “torch police” bring your own security idea.

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  11. George R says:

    A political concomitant of Al Beeb’s support for merely ‘militant’ (not Jihadist!) Hezbollah against Israel, is that Al Beeb will not fundamentally criticise Hezbollah’s coup d’etat attempt in Lebanon now:

    “Hezbollah takes over west Beirut”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7391600.stm

    (And the inevitable HYS: “Are you in Beirut” etc.)

    For supplementary and alternative material on Lebanon (of Feb. 20088):

    “Lebanon, Twisting in the Wind”

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/12793

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  12. Martin says:

    How couldI forget the lovely Diane. Could add in Portillo as well, considering he’s now a 100% Tory hating Beeboid.

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  13. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Hillhunt | 08.05.08 – 5:07 pm |

    The first series of Blackadder did not do well and was regularly criticised at the time, though the subsequent series are generally considered to have been among the BBC’s best comedies…

    Yes, because they retooled the Blackadder character into being a clever Machiavellian type who was clearly superior to the cast of buffoons around him. Sort of like the way you view yourself amongst all of us here. That character change held through all further series, and is the most likely reason for their success.

    Oh, and of course Fry was very good in the other two in which he had a role. He didn’t have a regular character in the third one, or did you forget that when you made your comment?

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  14. DB says:

    The BBC won’t mention this but it’s worth a reminder – all media reports from Hezbollah-controlled areas will be vetted by islamofascist thugs.

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  15. Reimer says:

    Jeremy Vine show on BBC R2 at lunchtime really getting stuck into the the latest ITV fine over the phone fraud etc. “Call to tell us – Will you ever ring an ITV show again?” (ie can you ever see yourself trusting ITV again?) A long line of callers suitably screened told us how glad they were to help cast the BBC in a good light…er I mean, wouldn’t be voting for Ant & Dec’s Deep-Pan Pepperoni again.

    People in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. Forcing every household in the land upon possible pain of jail to pay for a broadcaster much of whose output increasingly assumes a role akin to a glossier counterpart of some pre-1990 information agency in Eastern Europe must surely constitute some kind of severely aggravated fraud.

    R

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Reimer:
    Jeremy Vine show on BBC R2 at lunchtime really getting stuck into the the latest ITV fine over the phone fraud etc. “Call to tell us – Will you ever ring an ITV show again?” (ie can you ever see yourself trusting ITV again?) A long line of callers suitably screened told us how glad they were to help cast the BBC in a good light…er I mean, wouldn’t be voting for Ant & Dec’s Deep-Pan Pepperoni again.

    People in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones.

    Damn right:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7392213.stm

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  17. BaggieJonathan says:

    Two current stories, compare and contrast

    Cabrera can’t stay

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7392666.stm

    But Qatada and OO can

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7392879.stm

    Reported by the BBC, but without a comment on the apalling injustice of both situations (in entirely different ways).

    Disgraceful in so many ways I’m lost for more words.

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  18. Ferry Tuckwit says:

    Souldn’t there be a referendum on the TV tax?

    Being a democracy and all that?

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  19. Pot-Kettle-Black says:

    Sounds familiar?

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/article1148606.ece

    well publishing two stories about this might make even the BBC think, so they give it a miss.

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  20. David says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7390915.stm

    Two things here. First of all – 17 people turned up to protest Barnbrook. 17! And that, apparently, warrants half an article and a photo.

    Secondly, they are Socialists, so of course the BBC will give them attention. However, you’ll also notice the signs pictured in the photos that say ‘Fight the Right’. This just proves that neither the BBC nor the Socialist Party understand the BNP. Yes, the BNP used to be a right-wing party in the 80s. But in order to become electorally successful, they have adopted far left-wing ideas, and attract disaffected Labour voters. The BBC will have you believe the BNP are all frustrated Tories – quite the oppositie.

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  21. PacificRising says:

    Burma – Cyclone Nargis
    On BBC news last night they reported that while the Junta were turning away international aid their people were still dying through lack of clean drinking water and food aid. The BBC also reported how the burmese state broadcaster was showing clips of the smiling generals handing out food parcels implying that the government had everything under control.
    Does this sound familiar?
    BBC. Pot. Kettle. Not White

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  22. Bryan says:

    The World Service also quoted an aid worker saying that the turning away of aid was unprecedented. Though false, this was not challenged by the BBC.

    There are plenty of precedents of aid being turned away. Pakistan spurned Israeli offers of assistance after its horrendous earthquake as did Indonesia after the Tsunami, and US aid was seriously limited.

    Iran jumped the gun after its most recent major earthquake with its terrorist mullahs taking the trouble to announce that they would accept help from any nation on earth except Israel. The savages were apparently quite concerned that Israel would offer to assist, as it had during past Iranian catastrophes.

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  23. Martin says:

    Did the BBC say if China was sending food for a change or guns as usual?

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  24. Bryan says:

    Nope, I didn’t hear the BBC say nothing about China. When in doubt, the propagandist remains silent.

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  25. George R says:

    BBC cryptic ‘report’ about a ‘man’, detained in ‘anti-terror’ probe:

    “Man detained in anti-terror probe”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7393887.stm

    ———————————

    ‘Manchester Evening News’ report on one HASSAN BUTT:

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/14702

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  26. George R says:

    More on BBC’s ‘man’:-

    “UK: High-profile reformed jihadist arrested on suspicion of jihad activity”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020963.php

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  27. Bryan says:

    I couldn’t detect any bias in this headline, though I did a double take:

    Great tits cope well with warming

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7390109.stm

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  28. Nearly Oxfordian says:

    LOL.

    And of course, this is more relevant to BBC bias than Hebrew grammar is? 😉

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  29. Bryan says:

    As I said, I was on a hunt for BBC bias but all I could visualise was a cosy, tight-fitting top on a winter’s day.

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  30. Nearly Oxfordian says:

    Damn you, Bryan – now I’ll have that lovely image distracting me from all the other things I need to concentrate on for the rest of the evening. 😉

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  31. Bryan says:

    Dangers of the internet, NO.

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  32. David says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7394312.stm

    “BBC political correspondent Rita Chakrabarti says the book cannot be seen entirely as an attack on Gordon Brown.

    She says that while it does contain remarks Mr Brown will not be happy to hear, the claims help neither Mr Brown nor Mr Blair.

    And despite his scathing commentary in the serialisation, the former deputy PM professes his admiration for both Mr Blair and Mr Brown.”

    Allow me to translate:

    “BBC political correspondent Rita Chakrabarti has some kind words for Gordon Brown.

    Because Gordon Brown is completely under the kosh at the moment, Rita would like to point out that the book also contains some nasty things about Tony Blair. This is to deflect your attention away from what it says about Gordon Brown.

    John Prescott agrees with Rita that Gordon Brown is a fine statesman and a great Prime Minister. Why else would I include this positive tidbit unless I agreed with it?”

    Any chance of a new General thread, David? Things like this are too good to miss.

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  33. will says:

    Stephen Fry’s BBC oration is ‘tosh’
    By Andrew Pierce

    It’s why politicians are now rightly questioning whether the time has come to rethink the wisdom of allowing the BBC to keep the entire licence fee from every British television-watching household. Tragic? No, Mr Fry. Just inevitable unless the Beeb changes course

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/10/do1007.xml

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  34. Nearly Oxfordian says:

    Fry is a smug, self-important asshole. He is constitutionally incapable of understanding that not everyone shares his ignorant metro-crap perspective.

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  35. deegee says:

    This is ground we’ve covered before but the BBC has a new euphemism for terrorists and this time Israel is not involved. The new word is rebels.

    Turkey ‘kills 150 Kurdish rebels’ Why the scare quotes?

    First paragraph: Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq this week left more than 150 Kurdish rebels dead, the Turkish army says.

    Second paragraph: “According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralise more than 150 terrorists,” the army said in a statement on its website.

    I don’t read Turkish so I can’t say with absolute certainty the website didn’t say rebels. However when you look at a direct quote inevitably the word used is terrorists.

    When you look at Yahoo! NEWS you find remarkably similar language from an AFP release.

    Is the BBC recycling reports from the agencies without crediting them

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  36. George R says:

    Is it because it’s the weekend, or because it’s politically inconvenient that the BBC still hasn’t updated this non-report?:

    “Man detained in anti-terror probe”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7393887.stm

    The ‘Manchester Evening News’ named ‘man’ HASSAN BUTT over 24 hours ago; and there are blog comments like this:

    “Butt nailed at Airport”

    http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2008/05/butt-nailed-at-airport.html

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  37. Benny says:

    Anti-mile bias on “Wild China” tonight, where they used kilometres instead of miles. Why would the British Broadcasting Corporation not use the unit of measurement most familiar to British people?

    The BBC: If there’s anything we can do to undermine British values, we will do it.

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  38. George R says:

    “Brown not prickly, says Miliband”

    (or,

    ‘Brown not prickly’, says prickly Miliband.)

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7394723.stm

    This is Miliband, advocate of Turkey’s EU membership, who simultaneously sells-out the passport rights of UK people to his beloved megalomaniac European Union – reported by the ‘Mail’, but NOT by the BBC:

    “British tourists are told to put EU stickers on their passports”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=565510&in_page_id=1770

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  39. GCooper says:

    Benny writes:

    “Why would the British Broadcasting Corporation not use the unit of measurement most familiar to British people?”

    It seems to have been BBC policy for years now. Like you, I consider it (whether subliminally or not) to be part of a process of undermining establised culture and norms.

    Gramsci would have got it.

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  40. Martin says:

    Ok you lot! Own up. Which one of you was shooting at Jeremy Bowen then? Come on own up.

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  41. Pickwick says:

    I wonder if anybody heard a short play “Change of Heart” broadcast this afternoon on radio 4. It was introduced as a comedy, but to me it sounded like a piece of leftist propaganda. It was so simplistic that I’m beginning to wonder if it was all so tongue in cheek that I completely misunderstood. I am a foreigner so maybe I missed something ?

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  42. George R says:

    Martin:

    Who was threatening Al Beeb’s Bowen in Beirut?

    It couldn’t have been any of the adherents of the ‘religion of peace’ and Hezbollah, could it? Nah, their apologists tell us how few of them support violence:

    “How many radical Muslims are there in the world?”

    http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/010556.html

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  43. Arthur Dent says:

    Pickwick I was just about to post on the same thing myself. Thus was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Labour Party disguised as a so-called ‘comedy’.

    I am seldom inclined to utter expetives but this afternoon was reduced to swearing at the radio. The programme was the most appallingly biased drivel which in essence implied that anyone who was tipped out by the voters last week was a selfless caring hard working person who cared deeply for others and the planet and would never, never do anything in the slightest way dodgy, nor waste alarming amounts of taxpayers money. Anyone who wasn’t a NuLabour Social Working Socialist was a moron with no sense of moral responsibility.

    If you want to know what the average BBC employee feels deep down I recommend it to you.

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  44. Fran says:

    Martin

    ‘Ok you lot! Own up. Which one of you was shooting at Jeremy Bowen then? Come on own up.’

    Let’s see, who COULD it have been. I only heard Jerry name one of the groups fighting in Lebanon – the Druze, who support the democratically elected Lebanese Government. So who could the other fighters have been?

    Oh cripes and yaroo! It’s those friends of the BBC and its favoured spokespeople, Hezbollah!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7394853.stm

    So why not mention them in the report? Well, there’s those divided loyalties aren’t there. After all, Hezbollah are deeply admired by BBC Muddle East correspondents for showing those nasty Jooos a thing or two in ’06. So it’s understandable that the Beeb don’t want to grass up their Syrian and Iranian backed Hezbollah chums over the rape of the Only Other Democracy in the Middle East. For the Lebanese Government is there as a result of an election – and as we all know from the BBC, it’s normally Very Wicked Indeed not to support a democratically elected government. Like the EU, US and UN who are all so beastly to Hamas, for example.

    However, in Lebanon’s case we can make an exception can’t we, because THIS elected government is morally tainted by being ‘western- (code for US) backed’!

    The BBC Muddle East editors’ equivalence between the terrorists of Hezbollah and the supporters of the elected Lebanese government is loathsome. Thus do they, time after time, line up alongside tyranical terrorist organisations and regimes against democracy.

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  45. GCooper says:

    Pickwick writes:

    “I wonder if anybody heard a short play “Change of Heart” broadcast this afternoon on radio 4. It was introduced as a comedy, but to me it sounded like a piece of leftist propaganda.”

    I heard it and you’re right – that is exactly what it was.

    To seasoned observers of R4 drama it might have seemed a little blatant, but not very. Most of it bumbles along in a Leftist direction but this wasn’t just the usual rubbish, it was hard-Left polemic.

    Next week, I suppose there will be one about a victorious Conservative local councillor and the mess of corruption and incompetence they find on taking over from a ZaNuLabour predecessor?

    No, I thought not.

    Just to think, we have imbeciles on here who try to claim the BBC isn’t biased!

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  46. George R says:

    BBC – AL JAZEERA TV – HEZBOLLAH links

    According to Wikipedia, Al Jazeera and the BBC are linked like this:

    AL JAZEERA

    [ Wikipedia extract: ]

    ” FUNDING:-
    Further to the initial US$ 150 million grant from the Emir of Qatar, Al Jazeera had aimed to become self-sufficient through advertising by 2001, but when this failed to occur, the Emir agreed to continue subsidizing it on a year-by-year basis (US$30 million in 2004, according to Arnaud de Borchgrave). Other major sources of income include advertising, cable subscription fees, broadcasting deals with other companies, and sale of footage. In 2000, advertising accounted for 40% of the station’s revenue.

    “OUTSIDE THE MIDDLE EAST
    […] Al Jazeera English:

    “In 2003, Al Jazeera hired its first* English-language journalist, Afshin Rattansi, from the BBC’s ‘Today Programme’ (which had been at the heart of UK events when it came to Tony Blair’s decision to back the U.S. invasion of Iraq).”
    [ * There have been many more since then.]

    “In March 2003, it launched an English-language website [..].

    “On July 4, 2005 Al Jazeera officially announced plans to launch a new English-language satellite service to be called Al Jazeera International.[12] The new channel started at 12h GMT on November 15, 2006 under the name Al Jazeera English and has broadcast centers in Doha (next to the original Al Jazeera headquarters and broadcast center), London, Kuala Lumpur and Washington D.C.. The channel is a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week news channel, with 12 hours broadcast from Doha, and four hours each from London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C.

    “With Al Jazeera’s growing global outreach and influence, some scholars including Adel Iskandar have described the station as a transformation of the very definition of ‘alternative media.’

    “VIEWERSHIP
    [..] ..”Increasingly, Al Jazeera’s exclusive interviews and other footage are being rebroadcast in American, British, and other western media outlets such as CNN and the BBC. In January 2003, the BBC announced that it had signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing facilities and information, including news footage. Al Jazeera is now considered by some to be a fairly mainstream media network, though more controversial than most. In the United States as of 2006, video footage from the network carried by other stations was largely limited to video segments of hostages.

    “As of 2007, the Arabic Al Jazeera channel rivals the BBC in worldwide audiences with an estimated 40 to 50 million viewers. Al Jazeera English has an estimated reach of around 100 million households.”

    [We know that BBC Arab TV, financed by UK taxpayer, has recently been launched.]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera#Funding

    Note, in the following MEMRI account, how Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad, owner of Al Jazeera is heavily involved with
    Hezbollah:-

    “In a meeting broadcast by Al-Jazeera on May 9, 2008, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Aal-Thani decided that the crisis in Lebanon should be considered ‘an internal Lebanese matter.’ As a result, Al-Jazeera has cut its screening of footage of the violent Amal/Hizbullah takeover to a minimum, airing only statements by March 14 Forces leaders and halting its airing of inflammatory speeches by Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah. It should be mentioned that weeks ago, Al-Jazeera denied the legitimacy of the Lebanese government by referring to the country’s two parties not as ‘government’ and ‘opposition,’ but rather as ‘the allied parties’ (muwalah) and ‘the opposition’ (mu’aradha).

    “The decision by Al-Assad and Sheikh Hamad to consider the Lebanon crisis an ‘internal Lebanese issue’ may be aimed at preempting international intervention in the crisis, whether by means of bringing in international forces or by new U.N. Security Council resolutions.

    “It should be recalled that in the 2006 U.N. Security Council discussions that led to Resolution 1701, Hizbullah was represented at the Security Council not by the Arab League or by the Saudi or Egyptian foreign ministers, but by Qatar’s foreign minister. In January 2008, Qatar, which is part of the Iran-Syria-Hizbullah-Hamas-Shi’ite axis, drove a wedge into the Saudi-Egypt-Gulf-Sunni bloc against Iran by inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the GCC conference, defying the U.S. and of the other GCC members. ”

    http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA43608

    It seems as though the BBC is politically implicated in the political activities of Qatar and of Al Jazeera.

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  47. Pot-Kettle-Black says:

    Hillhunt,

    I referred to Blackadder.

    You said Fry meant such things as the first series of Blackadder.

    He wasn’t in that, he only joined when it was ‘popular’.

    Way to go to ruin your own argument. Classic.

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  48. Martin says:

    I’m sure Bowen will find a way to blame the those Jews for being shot at

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